Design Concept

Each of my guitars is crafted with devotion, expertise, and decades of experience from carefully selected tonewoods. At the same time, it reflects your individual needs and personality.

I strive to achieve the same quality characteristics that are recognized as essential for outstanding orchestral and soloist instruments: a powerful, expressive and balanced sound over the entire tonal range, a differentiated response and excellent playability in all positions. I pay special attention to the character of the guitar as an intimate instrument with a rich palette of sound colors.

My guitars are the result of a concept that takes many different but equally important aspects into account, and includes refined technical solutions:

1. Traditional Approach
2. The Guitar – a Whole Organism
3. Richness of Harmonics
4. Tonal Elaboration of Top and Back
5. Intonation
6. Sound Adjustment
7. Ergonomic Aspects
8. Strings

1. Traditional Approach

All classical music is based on a traditional sound aesthetic that imparts authenticity to the repertoire of the time, including contemporary music. This sound aesthetic is embodied to a large extent in the musical instruments, as their development has always been in close connection with the musical life of the time.

My guitar models are designed for contemporary music in an open style. As classical instruments, however, they are based on historical lines of development.

I was particularly influenced by German guitar making in the early 20th century. Through intensive research into the life and work of the German guitar maker Richard Jacob Weissgerber (1877–1960), I obtained a deeper insight into this field.

Two important guitar sound traditions intersected here:

On the one hand, there are the German guitars with their reference to 19th century Viennese guitar making. The latter was closely embedded in the cultural life of the world music center of the time, with significant influences from the tonal culture of Italy.

On the other hand, with virtuosos Emilio Pujol, Miguel Llobet and Andrés Segovia, Spanish guitars appeared in Germany – with their late-romantic expressive temperament and national tonal coloration, they continue to fascinate aficionados to this day.

A guitar made by Hermann Hauser sr. in 1921 was an important inspiration for the conception of the KONZERT model. It turned my view of the function of the guitar into that of a vibrating whole organism. Its top construction, based on a patent by Hermann Hauser, was an attempt to combine the qualities of Viennese and Spanish guitars.

For a decade, I traced the sound myth of the old Spanish guitars. The ESSENCE model is the result of my search for the most subtle nuances of sound.

I built two copies of a guitar by Louis Panormo, a representative of Spanish guitar making in the first half of the 19th century. I understood this work as an empirical sound study of the Spanish guitar before Antonio de Torres, the founder of modern guitar making. The ANIMA model incorporates ideas from this research.

In a guitar by Antonio de Torres with its parchment-like soundboard, its transparent, warm sound and its extreme response to changes in tone color, I finally encountered a sound dimension of almost transcendent quality. For me, Torres is the heart of the guitar.

2. The Guitar – a Whole Organism

^{Fig.: Body resonance of an examined traditional classical guitar at 1.03 kHz, covering the top, back, sides, and the neck.}

While many guitars are designed to concentrate the sound energy on the top, I see the guitar as a whole organism. Stimulated by the strings, each part of the guitar, the instrument as a whole and the air enclosed in the body vibrate simultaneously. Supporting this general behaviour of the guitar conceptually makes sense:

• You experience a physical feedback of the vibration behaviour of the body right into the neck, which facilitates a connection of body and instrument to form a unit.
• Results of my research have shown that in the range of 700–1000 Hz – likely excited by air vibrations occuring inside the body – powerful body resonances capture the entire sound box. These resonances radiate particularly effectively due to their omnidirectional nature. The importance of this frequency range for producing a powerful sound is well known in string and wind instruments. Its level is a decisive factor for the guitar's carrying capacity in the concert hall.
• You not only experience the sound immersively, but can also evaluate it better via reflections from the room. Performing in concert, this approach enables you to receive a perceptible response from the acoustic behaviour of your instrument and thus better control your playing.

The tonal elaboration, a balanced body height, carefully dimensioned and processed wood joints and the sound adjustments contribute to ensuring that sound waves excited by the string vibration can freely travel through the instrument, develop natural frequencies and radiate effectively via a large-scale mode structure.

3. Richness of Harmonics

I am convinced: a bright, harmonically rich sound contributes significantly to the attractiveness of the guitar. It’s the overtones that bring the sound to life.

I therefore aim to densify the resonance profile of the guitar with a large number of eigenmodes and to emphasise brightness components from 2 kHz upwards. This has several advantages:

• The subjectively perceived volume increases, as the ear is particularly sensitive in the 2kHz range.
• The instrument reacts sensitively to vibrato and changes in tone colour, and thus enables a nuanced elaboration of a musical work.
• A dense resonance structure ensures that the musical flow can be perceived transparently, even in pianissimo and in complex passages.
• The treble gains warmth and shine.
• The guitar blends homogeneously into the sound of the classical orchestral instruments.
• Rapidly responding high sound components lend conciseness to every tone – a particular advantage for the audibility in ensemble work.
• Recordings acquire presence and vibrancy.
• The concert audience is stimulated by a rich sound impression.
• During practice, the state of alertness is also prolonged.

For me, a dense sound rich in overtones begins with the careful selection of wood. The tonal preparation of the top and back (link) lays the groundwork for a fine-grained resonance structure. Inspired by violin research, small asymmetries are built into my guitars, which favours additional resonances. Many details during assembly help to ensure that the sound can travel freely in the body and that a large number of high frequency resonances develop. Additionally, the sound adjustment has ‘’de-dampening‘’ effects on the instrument.

You don't have to worry about the bass in all this, because with a highly resonant instrument this range also benefits in terms of richness and definition.

4. Tonal Elaboration of Top and Back

Tonal work on the top and the back is a labour-intensive, delicate process and central to the characteristics of my guitars.

The goal is

• to equalise the differences in stiffness that are inherent in each piece of wood due to the individual living conditions of the tree and the respective cut from the trunk.
• to adapt the physically ideal vibration characteristics to the geometry of the guitar shape.
• to create the conditions for equally sensitive vibration behaviour, dynamic potential and static stability through a differentiated thickness gradation within the top.

I elaborate the soundboard using a plane and a scraper. With tactile sensitivity, a state of maximum attention and the intuition of many years of experience, I aim to eliminate the smallest areas of hardening and to slowly reveal the sound. I mainly use empirical testing methods such as palpation and tapping, and light transmittance test.

The result is a highly responsive soundboard with a full, subtle and persistent sound.

In order to enrich the sound spectrum, I also apply this process to the back.

The bracing manifests the sound and gives it a direction. In combination with a favourable curvature, it endows the construction a lasting static and tonal stability.

5. Intonation

Whether musical instrument, choir or orchestra – a high degree of intonation accuracy is a main quality characteristics of a resonating body, not only of our musical culture.

Well-known tuning problems on the concert guitar, especially in the higher registers, are not inherent, but can be largely remedied. The FABS (Free Adjustable Bridge System), which was designed in the early 1980s by the engineer and instrument researcher Karl Sandvoss, is a tried and tested proposal for regulating intonation.

FABS is convenient to handle and effective. Each string can be intonated on its own. This allows musicians to regulate the tuning behaviour of the guitar, regardless of the set of strings used.

FABS is recommended by the European Guitar Teacher’s Association (EGTA-D).

Providing you with optimum technical solutions is part of my self-conception as a guitar maker. Therefore, all my guitars are equipped with this design feature. In combination with a fine-tuned nut, this creates the possibility of high intonation accuracy.

^{Fig.: FABS guitar bridge with three individually adjustable saddle elements, allowing for precise intonation.}

6. Sound Adjustment

Every finished guitar of mine receives a sound adjustment. For this, I focus on the inherent tensions of the instrument. The possibilities to subsequently influence the sound are greater than generally assumed. Tensions caused during construction can be reduced and resonances can be balanced out.

The following parameters are essential to me:

• The treble must be in the foreground
• Emphasising the fundamentals
• Harmonising the overtone spectrum
• Consistent sound quality over the entire fingerboard including the open strings, string transitions and the main resonances.
• Correcting defective notes
• Tonal separation of the strings and individual notes
• Bringing out the response, overtone content and sound colours
• Enhancing presence, sonority and sustain
• Optimising the playing comfort
  

As a result of the sound adjustment, the transition from wound to plain strings is smooth, and the open strings are organically integrated into the overall sound. This process is one of the reasons for the relaxed sound and uncomplicated playability of my guitars.

My understanding of sound adjustment is based on the further development of Benno Streu's method, my acoustic research and many conversations and experiments with the musician Andreas Paolo Perger.

^{Fig.: Through sound adjustment, a beating in the tone – caused by two adjacent frequency peaks around 200 Hz and 600 Hz (black) – was eliminated. Following the adjustment, each pair of peaks coalesced into a single peak (red).}

7. Ergonomic Aspects

Alongside its sound, playability is equally essential to the quality of a musical instrument. With its position at the centre of the body, the guitar is predestined to create a unity of player and instrument. A conscious ergonomic design can favour an upright, centred posture and enable natural, fluid and effortless playing.

I take the following aspects into account with my guitars:

• The sides taper towards the neck and the slightly reduced height of the bass side ensure that the instrument sits perfectly on the body. The neck is aligned close to the body and the picking arm lies naturally on the edge of the body without the shoulder twisting. A solid neck-body connection provides optimum weight distribution. The edges are carefully rounded. To protect the forearm, I offer an armrest on request.
• The medium-thick neck with a C-profile has proven to be highly comfortable. A gentle arch across the fingerboard follows the hand’s natural form, easing the strain of barré playing and enhancing overall comfort. The deep-cut heel of the neck blends organically into the soundboard, making the positions above the soundboard fluid and easy to reach. The KONZERT and ESSENCE models also feature a raised fingerboard.
• A defined concave longitudinal arch allows a comfortable string action. When strings buzz against the frets, the caused is mainly the guitar body’s main resonances, which can lead to large string amplitudes. Through careful sound adjustment, these resonances are brought under control, allowing for greater dynamic range and freedom of expression. If necessary, I adjust individual frets according to the instrument’s resonance behaviour.
• I pay close attention to the string contact points at the nut and saddle: the string’s vibration should be reflected cleanly at both ends, without disruptive turbulence – this is essential for the intended tonal impulse to be transmitted effectively to the body. 
• Throughout the entire building process, I pay close attention to the instrument’s responsiveness. Particularly important in this regard are the voicing of the top and back (link), as well as the tonal adjustment on the finished instrument. A light response has an effect on the muscle tone of the entire body and thus contributes to the mobility of the fingering hand.
• In my experience, too little attention is paid to the physiological and psychological, i.e. motivating effect of the sound of the instrument. Conscious interaction with the instrument is possible when the vibrational behaviour can be experienced physically. A rich sound spectrum stimulates the imagination and prevents fatigue or even bore. A harmoniously organised overtone spectrum supports concentration as it creates calm and clarity.

Especially during longer practice phases, easy playability, a lively sound and thoughtful ergonomics of the instrument pay off in a mentally alert and physically relaxed state.

8. Strings

All of my guitars are fitted with Thomastik CRK124 MT.

The renowned expertise of the Viennese string manufacturer in the field of bowed instruments, combined with their innovative approach to steel strings technology for guitar, is clearly reflected in these strings.

With their rich overtones in the trebles and finely balanced basses, they complement my guitars perfectly and lend them a distinctive presence and openness.